Lean but Agile

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Rethink Workforce Planning and Gain a True Competitive Edge

Author:
William J. Rothwell, Jim Graber, Ph.D., Neil McCormick

ISBN:
9780814417775

Format:
Hardback

Price:
$45.00

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Overview

Powerful strategies for streamlining your staff and the work they do.
William Rothwell honored with the ASTD Distinguished Contribution Award
in Workplace Learning and Performance.

As organizations strive to maximize efficiency to meet stringent
budgets, a general "do more with less? mandate is no longer sufficient.
Managers and executives must evaluate every process and every role, and
do away with assumptions about how work gets done and who does it. Lean
but Agile presents a system for analyzing work and selecting the
ideal combination of cost-effective resources—employees, consultants,
contractors, temporary workers, vendors—to accomplish it.

The book advocates changes in hiring, goal-setting, learning and
development, and performance management, and discusses the introduction,
implementation, and management of lean work and agile staffing methods.
It also explores the fundamental role technology can play in the
transformation.

Packed with practical advice, examples, guides, worksheets, diagrams,
and metrics, Lean but Agile will help leaders, managers, and
human resource professionals optimize their workforces while still
achieving superior results.

About the Author

WILLIAM J. ROTHWELL is professor of Workplace Learning and Performance
at Pennsylvania State University and President of Rothwell & Associates,
a business consultancy.

JAMES GRABER is Managing Director of Business Decisions, Inc., a talent
management technology and software company.

NEIL MCCORMICK, a Senior Vice President at Talent2, has 30 years'
experience in international management, human resources and consulting.

Cover Copy

Chances are, your organization is experimenting with many ways to get work done without adding to its full-time payroll. But are you still managing to fulfill the high standards your customers and shareholders expect? Is your company systematically planning for the quantity and quality of people needed to achieve superior work results? Does it have a system in place to predict your future needs, keep your workforce lean, and move quickly enough to keep up with sudden changes in the marketplace?

Chock full of proven, practical guidance and tools including metrics, diagrams, examples, guides, and worksheets, Lean but Agile provides you with a comprehensive system for analyzing work and selecting the ideal combination of cost-effective resources—employees, consultants, contractors, temporary workers, and vendors—to accomplish it.

This eye-opening book shows you and your organization how to optimize efficient and effective ways to achieve work results in keeping with customer expectations while minimizing the costly expenses involved in maintaining a cadre of full-time workers.

You'll learn how to examine and rethink how work gets done in your organization; prepare for future needs; use training, goal-setting, and performance management to keep your human resources nimble and ready for unexpected challenges; and incorporate up-to-the-minute management strategies for keeping up with temporary and contingent workers, contractors, "permanent part-time" staff, outsourced staff, teleworkers, and others.

The book also reveals how to build organizational commitment for, and then implement, a comprehensive system for assessing present and future staffing needs, and explores the fundamental role technology can play in your transformation into a lean and agile organization.

In today's business environment, talent needs change so rapidly that smart organizations not only need to incorporate increased flexibility in their workforces, they have to have state-of-the-art systems for managing them. Lean but Agile gives you the expert guidance and proven systems you need to keep your payroll in line with your moment-to-moment needs and achieve the great results you know your company can deliver.

Jacket Copy

If your organization is like many others in the current economic
climate, you're being asked to do more with less and maximize efficiency
under the constraints of an increasingly stringent budget. In your
efforts to creatively cut costs while maintaining quality service and
production, you may have tried using a variety of alternative workers
such as contingent, contractor, and temporary workers; relying on
"permanent part-time? staff or teleworkers; or increasing overtime among
your existing workers. You may even have resorted to outsourcing,
offshoring, or downsizing.

Today, leading the pack, or just remaining competitive, does require a
significant shift in the way we do business. However, many of the
current efforts are focused just on cutting costs, and they run the risk
of also reducing organization capability. There's no getting around it:
If you want to optimize your workforce and still achieve superior
results, you need a calculated, systematic effort to plan for work
results and the types of workers needed to do the work.

Lean but Agile provides you and your organization with a complete
system for clarifying and focusing on measurable, desired outcomes and
working backward to design work and staff to achieve those outcomes.
Packed with practical advice, examples, guides, worksheets, diagrams,
and metrics, the book gives you powerful strategies for streamlining
your staff and the work they do...all while remaining nimble,
fast-moving, and ready to cope with dynamic change. Lean but Agile
gives you the eye-opening strategies you need to:

• Reengineer how work is done to impact the number and kind of people
needed

• Build a lean and agile talent pool

• Identify and assess the methods you currently use to staff for work

• Adopt new management strategies for dealing with the many different,
coexisting methods of staffing for and doing work

• Build organizational commitment to Lean but Agile work
and staffing, and make the business case to senior leaders and other
stakeholders

In addition, the book includes information on the HR audit as well as a
sample workforce report depicting how an organization may gather and
maintain useful workforce information.

Smart organizations need to be able to rapidly change direction in
staffing based on customer demands, competitor strategies, innovation,
pricing, and other considerations. This book contains a powerful system
for staying lean while delivering the superior products, services, and
results that customers and shareholders demand.

WILLIAM J. ROTHWELL is professor of Workplace Learning and Performance
at The Pennsylvania State University and President of Rothwell &
Associates, a business consultancy.

JAMES GRABER is Managing Director of Business Decisions, Inc., a
talent-management technology and software company.

NEIL McCORMICK, a Senior Vice President at Talent2, has 30 years'
experience in international management, human resources, and consulting.

Confirmation

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